10 “Healthy” Foods That Are Often Worse Than You Think
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
“This is healthy, it’s a…” is an easy mistake to make if one doesn’t read the labels. Here are 10 tricksters to watch out for in particular!
Don’t be fooled by healthy aesthetics on the packaging…
Notwithstanding appearances and in many cases reputations, these all merit extra attention:
- Yogurt: sweetened yogurts, especially “fruit at the bottom / in the corner” types, often have 15–30g of sugar per serving. Plain Greek yogurt is a better choice, offering 15–20g of protein with no added sugar. You can always add fresh fruits or spices like sweet cinnamon for flavor without added sugar.
- Oatmeal: prepackaged oatmeal can contain 12–15 grams of added sugar per serving, similar to a glazed donut. Additionally, finely milled oats (as in “instant” oatmeal) can cause blood sugar spikes by itself, due to the loss of fiber. Better is plain oats, and if you like, you can sweeten them naturally with sweet cinnamon and/or fresh fruit for a healthier breakfast.
- Sushi: while sushi contains nutritious fish, it often has too much white rice (and in the US, sushi rice is also often cooked with sugar to “improve” the taste and help cohesion) and sugary sauces. This makes many rolls much less healthy. So if fish (the sashimi component of sushi) is your thing, then focus on that, and minimize sugar intake for a more balanced meal.
- Baked beans: store-bought baked beans can have up to 25g of added sugar per cup, similar to soda. Better to opt for plain beans and prepare them at home so that nothing is in them except what you personally put there.
- Deli meats: deli meats are convenient but often are more processed than they look, containing preservatives linked to health risks. Fresh, unprocessed meats like chicken or turkey breast are healthier and can still be cost-effective when bought in bulk.
- Fruit juices: fruit juices lack fiber (meaning their own natural sugars also become harmful, with no fiber to slow them down) and often contain added sugars too. Eating whole fruits is a much better way to get fiber, nutrients, and controlled healthy sugar intake.
- Hazelnut spread: hazelnut spreads are usually 50% added sugar and contain unhealthy oils like palm oil. So, skip those, and enjoy natural nut butters for healthier fats and proteins.
- Granola: granola is often loaded with added sugars and preservatives, so watch out for those.
- Sports drinks: sports drinks, with 20–25g of added sugar per serving, are unnecessary and unhelpful (except, perhaps, in case of emergency for correcting diabetic hypoglycemia). Stick to water or electrolyte drinks—and even in the latter case, check the labels for added sugar and excessive sodium!
- Dark chocolate: dark chocolate with 80% or more cocoa has health benefits but still typically contains a lot of added sugar. Check labels carefully!
For more on each of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
From Apples to Bees, and High-Fructose Cs: Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
How To Reduce Salt When You Enjoy Salt
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!
In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!
No question/request too big or small 😎
❝Trying to cut down salt to improve blood pressure, but it just results in sad meals, any advice?❞
Good news: there are quite a few angles from which to approach this!
Firstly, you might know that cutting down on sodium, while a worthy pursuit for most people in the industrialized world, isn’t the only way to improve your blood pressure.
See for example: Hypertension: Factors Far More Relevant Than Salt
But, let’s say we’re cutting down on sodium, and we will say “sodium” rather than “salt” here, since for example a good and sensible substitution is potassium chloride, which is also a salt (and yes it is also salty to the taste), but does not contain sodium.
Learn more: Why the WHO has recommended switching to a healthier salt alternative ← notably, most commercial “low-sodium salt” products are a mixture of sodium chloride cut with potassium chloride. Check the labels when shopping, as some have better ratios of potassium:sodium than others (more potassium is better; less sodium is better).
Another substitution option is monosodium glutamate (MSG) which, as you may gather from the name, does contain sodium, but it has about ⅓ of the sodium content of sodium chloride, i.e. “regular table salt”.
Learn more: MSG vs. Salt: Sodium Comparison ← here be chemistry
See also: Sea Salt vs MSG – Which is Healthier?
For those wary of MSG, please disregard the popular myths, which are simply untrue: Monosodium Glutamate: Sinless Flavor-Enhancer Or Terrible Health Risk?
You might also wonder about pink Himalayan rock salt. Its imperfections do make it beautiful, but it is still almost entirely sodium chloride, and as such, contains just as much sodium as regular table salt.
There are more things you can do than just substitutions, though.
For example, most of most people’s sodium intake comes not from added salt in cooking or at the table, but rather from ultraprocessed foods (see How Likely Is It That Ultra-Processed Foods (UPFs) Will Kill You?). So cutting down on those can do a lot of good even if you’re using salt in your own cooking!
Further, if (like this writer) you enjoy strong flavors, feel free to go heavy on other seasonings that can fulfil a similar culinary role. For example, garlic granules (great on pasta and potatoes) and coarse ground black pepper (what isn’t it great on?) are very worthy options, as is dried sumac (great in salads). Despite not even tasting salty and therefore definitionally not being salt-substitutes, they nevertheless elicit some comparable gustatory reactions, depending on the food of course.
Finally, what if for whatever reason you do have a sodium-heavy meal once in a while?
We’re not going to say “once in a while won’t hurt you”, because sodium raises blood pressure acutely (i.e., in the moment) so once in a while could in fact kill you if your general cardiovascular health is poor.
But, if you’re just on the cusp of healthy blood pressure want to tip it a bit lower, then if you do have a salty meal once in a while, then here are some things you might want to bear in mind:
Sodium raises blood pressure because of what it does to our electrolyte balance and how it resultantly affects other aspects of homeostasis (such as osmotic gradients and intracellular pressure and so forth and, yes, blood volume and therefore blood pressure).
This means that if you do get too much sodium, that can be mitigated at least somewhat by:
- Drinking more water (but still no more than 1L per hour, please, as your kidneys can’t process more than that and then you’ll have extra problems including, paradoxically, even higher blood pressure)
- Peeing more (goodbye, sodium)
- Taking potassium (this is one where supplements are more useful, because if you’ve just eaten a big salty meal, you’re probably not ready eating an entire fruit bowl)
The potassium thing works because, to oversimplify it a little, it has some opposite functions to sodium and will help balance things out.
Learn more: Why You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Potassium
Want to learn more?
For 94 low-sodium recipes (which are also heart-healthy in other ways too), consider:
The End of Heart Disease – by Dr. Joel Fuhrman
Enjoy!
Share This Post
-
How to Stay Sane – by Philippa Perry
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
First, what this book is not: a guide of “how to stay sane” in the popular use of the word “sane”, meaning free from serious mental illness of all and any kinds in general, and especially free from psychotic delusions. Alas, this book will not help with those.
What, then, is it? A guide of “how to stay sane” in the more casual sense of resiliently and adaptively managing stress, anxiety, and suchlike. The “light end” of mental health struggles, that nonetheless may not always feel light when dealing with them.
The author, a psychotherapist, draws from her professional experience and training to lay out psychological tools for our use, as well as giving the reader a broader understanding of the most common ills that may ail us.
The writing style is relaxed and personable; it’s not at all like reading a textbook.
The psychotherapeutic style is not tied to one model, and rather hops from one to another, per what is most likely to help for a given thing. This is, in this reviewer’s opinion at least, far better than the (all-too common) attempt made by a lot of writers to try to present their personal favorite model as the cure for all ills, instead of embracing the whole toolbox as this one does.
Bottom line: if your mental health is anywhere between “mostly good” and “a little frayed around the edges but hanging on by at least a few threads”, then this book likely can help you gain/maintain the surer foundation you’re surely seeking.
Share This Post
-
Demystifying Cholesterol
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
All About Cholesterol
When it comes to cholesterol, the most common lay understanding (especially under a certain age) is “it’s bad”.
A more informed view (and more common after a certain age) is “LDL cholesterol is bad; HDL cholesterol is good”.
A more nuanced view is “LDL cholesterol is established as significantly associated with (and almost certainly a causal factor of) atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and related mortality in men; in women it is less strongly associated and may or may not be a causal factor”
You can read more about that here:
Statins: His & Hers? ← we highly recommend reading this, especially if you are a woman and/or considering/taking statins. To be clear, we’re not saying “don’t take statins!”, because they might be the right medical choice for you and we’re not your doctors. But we are saying: here’s something to at least know about and consider.
Beyond HDL & LDL
Aside from high density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) here is also VLDL cholesterol, which as you might have guessed, stands for “very low-density lipoprotein”. It has a high, unhealthy triglyceride content, and it increases atherosclerotic plaque. In other words, it hardens your arteries more quickly.
The term “hardening the arteries” is an insufficient descriptor of what’s happening though, because while yes it is hardening the arteries, it’s also narrowing them. Because minerals and detritus passing through in the blood (the latter sounds bad, but there is supposed to be detritus passing through in the blood; it’s got to get out of the body somehow, and it’s off to get filtered and excreted) get stuck in the cholesterol (which itself is a waxy substance, by the way) and before you know it, those minerals and other things have become a solid part of the interior of your artery wall, like a little plastering team came and slapped plaster on the inside of the walls, then when it hardened, slapped more plaster on, and so on. Macrophages (normally the body’s best interior clean-up team) can’t eat things much bigger than themselves, so that means they can’t tackle the build-up of plaque.
Impact on the heart
Narrower less flexible arteries means very poor circulation, which means that organs can start having problems, which obviously includes your heart itself as it is not only having to do a harder job to keep the blood circulating through the narrower blood vessels, but also, it is not immune to also being starved of oxygen and nutrients along with the rest of the body when the circulation isn’t good enough. It’s a catch 22.
What if LDL is low and someone is getting heart disease anyway?
That’s often a case of apolipoprotein B, and unlike lipoprotein A, which is bound to LDL so usually* isn’t a problem if LDL is in “safe” ranges, Apo-B can more often cause problems even when LDL is low. Neither of these are tested for in most standard cholesterol tests by the way, so you might have to ask for them.
*Some people, around 1 in 20 people, have hereditary extra risk factors for this.
What to do about it?
Well, get those lipids tests! Including asking for the LpA and Apo-B tests, especially if you have a history of heart disease in your family, or otherwise know you have a genetic risk factor.
With or without extra genetic risks, it’s good to get lipids tests done annually from 40 onwards (earlier, if you have extra risk factors).
See also: Understanding your cholesterol numbers
Wondering whether you have an increased genetic risk or not?
Genetic Testing: Health Benefits & Methods ← we think this is worth doing; it’s a “one-off test tells many useful things”. Usually done from a saliva sample, but some companies arrange a blood draw instead. Cost is usually quite affordable; do shop around, though.
Additionally, talk to your pharmacist to check whether any of your meds have contraindications or interactions you should be aware of in this regard. Pharmacists usually know contraindications/interactions stuff better than doctors, and/but unlike doctors, they don’t have social pressure on them to know everything, which means that if they’re not sure, instead of just guessing and reassuring you in a confident voice, they’ll actually check.
Lastly, shocking nobody, all the usual lifestyle medicine advice applies here, especially get plenty of moderate exercise and eat a good diet, preferably mostly if not entirely plant-based, and go easy on the saturated fat.
Note: while a vegan diet contains zero dietary cholesterol (because plants don’t make it), vegans can still get unhealthy blood lipid levels, because we are animals and—like most animals—our body is perfectly capable of making its own cholesterol (indeed, we do need some cholesterol to function), and it can make its own in the wrong balance, if for example we go too heavy on certain kinds of (yes, even some plant-based) saturated fat.
Read more: Can Saturated Fats Be Healthy? ← see for example how palm oil and coconut oil are both plant-based, and both high in saturated fat, but palm oil’s is heart-unhealthy on balance, while coconut oil’s is heart-healthy on balance (in moderation).
Want to know more about your personal risk?
Try the American College of Cardiology’s ASCVD risk estimator (it’s free)
Take care!
Share This Post
-
GLP-1 Drugs As Mood-Brighteners?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
We first wrote about GLP-1 receptor agonists (i.e. semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy) a couple of years ago when popularity was just beginning to take off:
However, as we at that time had room only to touch briefly on the side effects and what happens when you stop taking it, you might also want to check out:
What happens when I stop taking a drug like Ozempic or Mounjaro?
…and:
Body & brain
A lot of mental health disorders, and/or the medications for them, can affect body weight (in most cases: increasing it, the eating disorders usually do the opposite, unhealthily).
In the case of antidepressants, we talked about this here: How Much Weight Gain Do Antidepressants Cause?
…but there are other contenders that are less common (but still very common in the grand scheme of things), such many antipsychotics and mood stabilizers; in both of those cases the most widely-prescribed drugs have weight gain as a side effect.
So, a large (n=25,677) research review was conducted by Dr. Sigrid Breit & Dr. Daniela Hubl, looking into the safety and efficacy of GLP-1 RAs in patients with (and without) those conditions and/or medications.
In nutshell: they found that as well as being safe and effective for weight loss, they had mood-improving effects too.
Some take-aways from their research (if, for brevity, we skip over the metabolic benefits, weight loss, etc, which are all well-established):
- Five different studies showed mental health improvements in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
- No increased risk of suicidal ideation or behavior was found with GLP-1 RAs in people with or without mental illness*.
*in contrast, see: How Serious Are Antidepressant Side Effects?, in which we discuss the potential for (uncommon, but it happens sometimes) paradoxical increase in suicidality upon taking antidepressants
You may be thinking: “That’s all great, but I don’t have a mental illness”
If so, then… Congratulations! And also: there are benefits regardless: GLP-1 RAs also improved mood and emotional well-being in people without mental illness, while outperforming insulin and other diabetic drugs.
As to how it works for mental health, there’s a lot that’s not yet known, but:
❝GLP-1 RAs may have antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects, potentially due to their anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties, which can also help reduce neuroinflammation.❞
~ Dr. Sigrid Breit
See also: The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach To Depression – by Dr. Edward Bullmore, for how that works
As for the research we’ve been writing about today, you can read the paper in full, here:
Want a natural method instead?
For general GLP-1RA effects:
It is possible to get many of the effects of GLP-1 RAs without taking GLP-1 RAs, by enjoying foods that increase incretin, a hormone group (the most well-known of which is GLP-1) that slows down stomach emptying, which means a gentler blood sugar curve and feeling fuller for longer. It also acts on the hypothalamus, controlling appetite via the brain too (signalling fullness and reducing hunger).
For what foods to focus on, see: 5 Ways To Naturally Boost The “Ozempic Effect” ← this is from Dr. Jason Fung, who is perhaps most well-known for his work in functional medicine for reversing diabetes, and he’s once again giving us sound advice about metabolic hormone-hacking with dietary tweaks!
However! If you (correctly) think that there’s a lot we don’t know about how GLP-1 RAs affect (or indeed, effect) weight loss and satiety, it’s nothing compared to what we don’t know about how GLP-1 RAs improve mood, which is, well, as you saw, researchers are guessing, so far. Which is how science should be! Because those guesses can be formulated into hypotheses that can be tested and then either furthered (if the results supported the hypothesis) or changed (if the results didn’t support the hypothesis). But guesses aren’t always where we want to be at when it comes to our personal health, so here are some more evidence-based approaches:
- Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key! ← Ok, so this one’s not “natural”, but it’s worth mentioning, as understanding this can avoid a lot of disappointment with the wrong antidepressants
- 12 Foods That Fight Depression & Anxiety
- Behavioral Activation Against Depression & Anxiety
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Is Air-Fried Food Really Healthier?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Air-frying has a reputation for being healthy—and it generally is, provided it’s used carefully:
Just one thing to watch out for
An air-fryer is basically a small convection oven that uses circulating air rather than immersion in oil to cook food. The smallness of an air-fryer is a feature not a bug—if you get an air-fryer over a certain size, then congratulations, you just have a convection oven. The small size it what helps it to cook so efficiently. This is one reason that they’re not really used in industrial settings.
The documentary-makers from this video had their food (chicken, fish, and fries) lab-tested (for fat, cholesterol, and acrylamide), and found:
- Air-frying significantly reduced saturated fat (38–53%) and trans fats (up to 55%) in some foods.
- Cholesterol reduction varied depending on the food type.
- Acrylamide levels in air-fried potatoes were much higher due to cooking time and temperature.
About that acrylamide: acrylamide forms in starchy foods at high temperatures and may pose cancer risks (the research is as yet unclear, with conflicting evidence). Air-frying can cause higher acrylamide levels if cooking is prolonged or temperatures are too high.
Recommendations to reduce acrylamide:
- Soak potatoes before cooking.
- Use lower temperatures (e.g. 180℃/350℉) and shorter cooking times.
- Avoid over-browning food.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Unlock Your Air-Fryer’s Potential!
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Before You Eat Breakfast: 3 Surprising Facts About Intermittent Fasting
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Dr. William Li is well-known for his advocacy of “eating to beat disease”, and/but today he has advice for us about not eating to beat disease. In moderation, of course, thus: intermittent fasting.
The easy way
Dr. Li explains the benefits of intermittent fasting; how it improves the metabolism and gives the body a chance to do much-needed maintainance, including burning off any excess fat we had hanging around.
However, rather than calling for us to do anything unduly Spartan, he points out that it’s already very natural for us to fast while sleeping, so we only need to add a couple of hours before and after sleeping (assuming an 8 hour sleep), to make it to a 12-hour fast for close to zero effort and probably no discomfort.
And yes, he argues that a 12-hour fast is beneficial, and even if 16 hours would be better, we do not need to beat ourselves up about getting to 16; what is more important is sustainability of the practice.
Dr. Li advocates for flexibility in fasting, and that it should be done by what manner is easiest, rather than trying to stick to something religiously (of course, if you do fast for religious reasons, that is another matter, and/but beyond the scope of this today).
For more information on each of these, as well as examples and tips, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
- Intermittent Fasting: What’s the truth?
- 16/8 Intermittent Fasting For Beginners
- Meal Timings & Health: How Important Is Breakfast?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
